In general, moxa is a perennial grass belonging to the chrysanthemum family. Moxa has strong alkalinity, has been widely used for culinary and medicinal purposes by folks, and contains abundant chlorophyll, vegetable fibers, mineral of good quality and various vitamins.
In traditional East-Asian medicine, acupuncture and moxibustion has been used as methods of improve immunity and vitality by removing stagnated blood due to abnormalities in the circulation of blood and Qi and warming Qi. Since the performance of acupuncture requires the assistance of specialists, moxibustion has been widely utilized by folks from old times.
Existing general moxibustion is classified into direct moxibustion of carrying out moxibustion with moxa placed on the skin of a patient and indirect moxibustion of carrying out moxibustion with moxa placed on garlic, ginger or salt. These types of moxibustion are all problematic in that they generate heat and the influences (smoke and vapor) of moxa are dispersed over an open indoor space to cause inconvenience and it is difficult to use the moxibustion due to difficulty in controlling temperature.
The cupping for promoting the immunity and vitality of humans by eliminating stagnated blood due to abnormality in the flow of Qi and blood and warming Qi so that Qi and blood are smoothly circulated has been also utilized widely in traditional East-Asian medicine and folk therapy. The shapes and kinds of cupping pots are various, and are mostly made of material, such as an animal horn, glass, plastic, wood and ceramic. The cupping may be classified into a single pot method of attaching a single cupping pot to the skin of a patient, a multiple pot method of attaching a plurality of cupping pots to the skin of a patient, an intermittent pot method of repeating the attaching and detaching of cupping pots to and from the skin of a patent, and a moving pot method of reciprocating cupping pots on the skin of the patient while being at the state of attaching cupping pots to the skin after applying lubricating oil to the skin. The cupping may also be classified into dry cupping of causing engorgement by attaching cupping pots to the skin of a patient, wet cupping of discharging blood by attaching cupping pots after applying acupuncture, and foaming cupping of causing skin foaming by attaching cupping pots to the skin of the patient under a high pressure.
In conventional cupping, since the effect of treatment can be achieved only by maintaining 10 to 40 cupping pots on the skin of a patient for a long time, the treatment requires a long time, and cupping pots are attached on a region without stagnated blood and, thus, causes a side effect because a plurality of cupping pots are employed. Furthermore, since the performance of cupping functions only to raise stagnated blood to the hypodermis of the skin, the effect of the treatment is weak. Accordingly, the conventional cupping is problematic in that the cupping has to be performed many times.